Zdenka Kunst
Zdenka Salihu Kunst, nicknamed Kasli, is Beatrix and Gustav's daughter and a painter. She is the protagonist of What If. She is a native of Dunklenort. In the Right to Die series, she is Terumi's wife and Ryūnosuke, Shūji, Sōseki and Akiko's mother. Info Appearance Kunst is a 172cm tall moon elf woman of teal skin known for her rainbow face paint and pitch black clothes. She loses her right arm, and uses a skeleton prosthetic. Personality At first glance, Zdenka appears to be a somber and melancholic woman of a serious and composed demeanor and reassuring calm. However, she is deep down a person obsessed with her art, to the point she would place it ahead of her own life. In fact, she seems to have a harmful relationship with her own art, to the point she neglects everything else. She is extremely eccentric, and prone to watch the most absurd and shocking things in awe, looking for beauty or meaning in the behaviors of people. Despite her outward behavior of alienation towards reality, Zdenka is a good person. She is altruistic and selfless, being able to do everything she can for the sake of a dear another, and she is kind and helpful towards common people. She can also be rather goofy and clumsy, traits which she actually appears to enjoy, as it often makes others laugh. While raising her sons, she tried her best to make them happy and was not above pranking, striking strange poses or even singing songs for them. She also cried easily, shedding tears when they were born, when they learned how to call her mother and when receiving gifts and affection for at least her first ten Mother's Day holidays. In fact, Zdenka is an extremely emotional person and cries at the smallest things. Zdenka is quite possibly one of the best and smartest strategists in-universe, as she has managed to trick Nevan Halford both before and after the latter learned of her true allegiance. She is extremely intelligent and a quick thinker, even during dangerous situations or when she is wounded. She is also very manipulative, specially if the situation demands it, as she can outright lie, construct personas for herself, twist situations to fit her agenda, mislead people and blur the truth. Although she does channel this flaw to noble purposes and for the welfare of others. Unlike many other characters, who are hedonistic in their love of violence, Zdenka represses her urges to lash out at others due to trauma from her past. She is aware that others' are not to blame, and, as a result, she lets that anger simmer within her while she helps others. When people actually anger her or actively goad her into violence, however, she is inadvertently and horribly violent, resorting to both physical and verbal abuse if necessary. Because of that, she is also grumpy and irritable, being quick to get irritated and cranky in response to provocations. Zdenka has serious self-esteem issues, as she uses art as a form of validating her worth, even though she herself has stated that the process of making art leaves her empty and drained. She is not fond of anything she paints, something that only began improving after she met Terumi. Zdenka also desperately wished that her sons would not hate her, specially Ryūnosuke, since she is a human. She honestly thought that they could hate her and believed that she is unimportant to them, looking to prove herself as worthy of being called their mother even when it was not necessary as they already love her from the bottom of their hearts. Zdenka has OCD. Story Weapons and Abilities Zdenka wields a pair of sai. Her fighting style focuses primarily in grappling and disarming attacks, allowing her to break blades and polearms, although she also uses her sai as stabbing and thrusting daggers. Others Background Zdenka's character, birthday and name are inspired by Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński, known for his surreal and nightmarish art. Her personality also was inspired by his, as he was known as a modest and pleasant person despite his grim paintings. Zdenka is a name of Slovak, Slovene, Croatian and Czech usage and the feminine form of Zdenko, derived from the Slavic element zidati meaning "build, create", originally a short form of names beginning with that element. Kunst is the Danish, Dutch, Estonian, German, and Norwegian word for "art". It is also a Dutch, or German and subsequently Ashkenazi-Jewish and Czech surname. It may be patronymic in origin, meaning Coenraad's, Konrad's or Constant's son. Kunst is also an album by industrial German band KMFDM. She is associated with leafy seadragons. John Thomas Sladek Sladek Trivia *Zdenka's birthday falls on Thailand's National Artist Day. Quotes Site Navigation Category:Characters Category:Protagonists Category:What If characters Category:Right to Die characters Category:Moon elves Category:Cisgender Category:Women Category:Homosexuals